My fiancé and I are an interfaith couple – he’s a Midwestern Irish Catholic, whereas I’m a reformed Jew from the West Coast. Both of our religions and cultures are extremely important to us, but we also love and respect each other so much that it’s important for us to start our own traditions. One of these traditions that we formed (and one of my favorites, at that) is a holiday called Eassover – the blending of Easter and Passover. About a year after we started dating, we decided to throw a party that celebrated the best of both our cultures and it was a hit. Sadly, because of saving for the wedding, plus a general lack of time (who decided 2011-2012 was going to be the year of the wedding anyway?), we’re not able to throw an Eassover party. So, I will live vicariously through the blog!
I know not everyone throws an Easter / Passover / whatever party, but seriously this time of year is a great time to gather up friends and celebrate. I’ll give you all the details you need to throwing an awesome spring celebration (including a yummy menu for tomorrow’s Tasty Tuesday!) Enjoy!
 |
| Eassover pre-dinner setup. Doesn't it look fun and multi-cultural? :) |
Party Planning 101
Ideally, a dinner party like Eassover needs a solid 3 weeks to plan. But, we’ve thrown it together in as little as a week.
Guests Galore
First things first, start with the guest list. We always want to invite everyone we know, but cooking for 100 people can be a tad bit stressful (and by tad, I mean VERY), so be realistic in your expectations.
Once you’ve decided who to invite, you’ve got to invite them! Websites like evite.com are great for casual parties. If you’re looking for an online invite company with a tad more oomph, check out paperlesspost.com. They cost a bit for “online postage” but guests are always impressed when these pop up in their inboxes. Plus, it’s still cheaper than paper invites.
Now, you’ve actually got people to come! Great, let’s move on:
Menu
I’ll go into more menu detail tomorrow, but about 2 weeks out you want to decide what you’re cooking and creating. This will give you plenty of time to shop for groceries and scope out the best deals. You’ll want to do the first round of grocery shopping the week before.
Along with the food, you’ll want to make sure your bar is fully stocked! Want to save some money? Come up with a signature drink for your event and serve that along with wine, beer, and soda. For Eassover, we created a drink called the Red Sea Resurrection and everyone loved it!
 |
| Red-Sea Resurrection... yum! |
You’ll also want to decide what to serve everything on. The first year we did Eassover, we decided to use our actual dinner plates, which was nice, but I think we were doing dishes for the next month. Last year we got nice plastic plates to serve on, which made cleanup a breeze but cost a little more dough. Take stock of your inventory and decide what you want to do. Just make sure you’ve got enough serve ware for everyone.
Activities
Wednesday, I’ll give you some ideas for fun Eassover activities, but about a week beforehand you’ll want to come up with ideas for your own party. Sure, it could be as simple as: eat dinner, listen to music, and chat. But, you’ll want to create a killer playlist then!
 |
| Blurry Egg-Decoration station. For more fun Eassover activities, check out Wednesday's blog |
Get the House Ready
For Eassover, we do a solid cleaning the morning of. But, you may need a little more time to get the house ready. Also, decide on how you want to arrange furniture and if you need to bring in extra seating and tables arrange for that the week before. The day of assemble your decorations, set out trash bags for clean up, and give the place a once-over to make sure everything looks great!
The day before you’ll also want to notify the neighbors, especially if there are cocktails involved and if it’s at night.
Day-Of Schedule
If you know me, you know scheduling is my thing. Here’s what my day-of Eassover schedule looks like (please don’t stop reading my blog, if you think I’m crazy!)
8.00am- wake up, make breakfast frittatas and coffee
9.00am-shower, get dressed
9.30am- Leave for Church
10.00am- Sunday Mass
11.30am- come home, serve brunch foods (frittata, matzo, coffee, mimosas)
12.30pm- Clean house, hide easter eggs and afikomen, set out egg decorating station, setup bar area
1.30pm- Make deviled eggs and egg salad
2.30pm- Setup pre-dinner buffet station (matzo, egg salad, deviled eggs, wine, peeps, easter candy)
3.00pm- Guests arrive, start making potato pancake puffs. Greet guests, show them activities
4.00pm- Start making ham, roasted chicken
5.00pm- Make noodle kugel and broccoli casserole
5.15pm- Make asparagus
5.45pm- set out food, blessings over the food
6.00pm- Dinner
7.00pm- Watch the Ten Commandments
Happy Easter and Passover week!
No comments:
Post a Comment